When the inverter is in use, keep an eye on the voltage reading of the battery. If the battery is at 12.4V or below, you are at or below a 50% discharge. Your supply cable will need to conform to standard BS EN 60309-2. This specifies a PVC/PVC flexible cable with three cores, each core ideally being 2.5mm. Hook up cables are therefore fatter than your standard domestic power cords. Cable care and storage The current from inverters can be large with high-current devices, so it’s important to place the inverter as close as possible to the batteries and to keep cable runs as short as possible. This reduces the temperature and voltage drop in the cables. Modern battery cable has the continuous current rating stamped on the insulation – your fuse rating must never exceed these markings.

The best way to recharge batteries rapidly is a battery-to-battery charger. These use the excess current from your alternator to recharge your leisure batteries while the engine is on. They can produce massive current (40-60A is common) and are the most powerful rechargers availableNo allowance is made for the effects of Peukert’s law (see Useful formulas below). This means loadings below about 200W are likely to give slightly longer times than shown here, while loadings above will result in reduced times. A hook-up connection is a method of directly connecting to a land-based power source via a power inlet that is typically installed on the side of your campervan. How does a shore connection work? The fuse rating needed depends on the inverter capacity and the cabling you use. For example, 50mm squared cabling has a maximum current load of 117-147A, so would need to be protected by a 125A fuse. You can find cable-rating tables online. Fuses are designed to protect cables. No fuses means the cable will become the fuse, melt and then set fire to surrounding material. Bad! When camping in Europe it seems a no-brainer to carry an RP tester and adapter. For a small outlay, it will give you extra peace of mind. Worldwide Travel Adapter with 2 USB ports

Free Unlimited Energy. Solar power is an excellent way of adding power to your campervan electrical system. After all, it’s basically free electricity!Connecting batteries in parallel (positive to positive, negative to negative) maintains the voltage at 12V while connecting in series (positive to negative) will almost double it to 24V. This latter option only makes sense if you have a 24V inverter. Also, in reference to my comments above, I’m only referencing pure sine wave inverters and no modified sine wave inverters. First, the ovens have a high starting current. Also, when the oven is run at less than full power, it is often automatically switched on and off at regular intervals to lower the average power. Each switch on has its own surge and these can be especially demanding for an inverter. In a campervan, the leisure battery is usually separate from the vehicle’s main battery, which is used to start the engine. The leisure battery is designed to provide a steady and reliable source of power to run appliances such as lights, fridge, water pump, and other electrical devices in the living area of the vehicle. What is the difference between a starter battery (the one used to start my van engine), and a leisure battery? At a minimum you need to double capacity, but if you have the payload, the greater your leisure battery capacity, the better. Bear in mind that extra or larger batteries are heavy and need to be subtracted from your payload. If you are short of payload, another option is lithium iron batteries, which are lighter and are claimed to offer deeper discharge cycles without damage.

Depending on what is connected, the power required to start up may be up to six times the power required in normal running. This can mean choosing a much beefier inverter than you might think. Therefore, its best you keep an eye on the voltage of the leisure battery yourself. BESTEK 300W Inverter Features Breaker Switch Fitting a breaker switch in your system here will give you the option to completely isolate the split charge system. This is a great additional safety feature. Typically, a 1500W inverter will need a 150A mega fuse. The mega fuse rating is its working continuous current, but they’re designed to cope with the peak power load of switch-on, so typically blow at double their rated current. This all happens in a fraction of second, so isn’t anything to worry about.A Reverse Polarity Tester will tell you if this is the case, and a Polarity Reverse Adapter will correct it. So if the efficiency rating is not stated, on average, its going to be around 80%. Now, if you noted in the previous paragraph, I stated ‘peak’ efficiency, that’s an important distinction. Distribution Box - Typically the nerve centre of the kit that connects to your battery and safely manages all loads (circuits) and charging sources in your system

And in the past, fewer appliances had computer chips in them, so their use was more applicable. However, today, I would recommend avoiding modified sine wave inverters. Obviously, mains power is not available, hence why you’re running the inverter. Therefore, having either a portable or fixed caravan solar panel setup needs to be a serious consideration. Inverter Options For Your Caravan Or Motorhome and then route the wires either across the roof and along the sides and down inside the window pillars, to finally end up at the seating unit by the sliding door. This is where the auxiliary battery and fuse boxes are going to be housed. First things first, I need an auxiliary battery. Normally a leisure battery would be the battery of choice here as they can handle being discharged and recharged over and over much better than a normal car battery. I was just about to buy a 110ah leisure battery when a friend of mine asked me if I wanted his (huge) spare Taxi battery. Yes please! So, for now, that’s what I’ll be using.If you just need a laptop and some USB gadgets charging then we recommend the Powertraveller Condor 100. With a 27,000 mAh battery giving around 100Wh of storage, it can recharge a laptop twice and a smartphone up to ten times on a single charge. Fantastic!